Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was "dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense." Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end.

Wow. Okay. So right after I finished this book, I actually had no words at all. I read this all in one go without stopping because I honestly couldn't put it down. Ignite Me has got to be one of my favourite conclusions ever. Hell, it's one of my favourite YA books ever, hands down. I had extremely high expectations for this and I'm ecstatic to say that Ignite Me surpassed all of them.Juliette is safe now at The Reestablishment with Warner, but she knows she has to do something about his terror of a father. Anderson almost killed her. Would have killed her, if not for Warner. And Juliette is now ready to fight back and win her freedom, with Warner by her side. But she needs her old friends too, and though Omega Point has been destroyed, some of the inhabitants escaped - Adam, Kenji, James and Castle among them. As Juliette trains for the fight of her life, she grows closer to Warner, but further away from Adam. But though they're important to her, she's fighting for herself, not for anyone else. And no one will stand in her way.I loved seeing how much Juliette has changed in this book. Gone is the meek and unconfident girl we remember from Shatter Me. In her place is a tough fighter, practically invincible and with a fire burning in her eyes. Juliette's character has grown so much, and she's learnt so much about herself and her powers. She's comfortable with them, and she's accepted them. She's also fiercely independent and shows that she doesn't need anyone to keep protecting her. I'm definitely going to miss Juliette, because though I could never connect with her too much, I really admired her in this book.Warner. I don't even know what to say but I'll try to be coherent! Warner is one of my favourite YA characters of all time. No doubt. I didn't think it was possible to love a fictional character so much, but that's what happened in this book. We get to know so much about him, and I empathized with him throughout. I understand him - his actions, his attitude, and I'm so glad that Juliette does too. We get to see a side of Warner that we only saw briefly in Unravel Me, and I loved that there's so much of him in this book. I desperately want to post some of my favourite Warner quotes but there are too many to look through so I guess I won't. I admit I was definitely squealing internally at some Warner and Juliette scenes. They're so amazing together. I've mentioned this in my Unravel Me review I think, but I just have to reiterate it. Warner brings out the best side of Juliette. He gets her, and he knows exactly what she needs even before she does. It's because of Warner that Juliette grew into her powers and became more confident in her abilities. Warner gives her the strength to face her fears. Warner shows her that he's not the monster she thought he was, and my heart totally melted when we see his vulnerable side. Who would've thought that cold and calculating leader in Shatter Me would turn out to be this kind, passionate and misunderstood guy? Warner is the one I'll miss most from this series.The biggest surprise I had in Ignite Me was Kenji. He's a lot more prominent in this one, and very close to Juliette. Don't worry, they're just best friends. Kenji is so freaking hilarious! Literally every scene with him in it had me laughing. He's so goofy and sarcastic, but he can be serious too. And Kenji can diffuse the tension in any situation, which comes in quite handy. This guy is a total gem, and Juliette's insanely lucky to be best friends with him.Now you might be wondering what happened to Adam. Well, he's still there but he's a complete dickhead. And so immature. I hated his guts pretty much throughout this book. After reading his novella, Fracture Me, I knew Adam wasn't the sweet guy we met in Shatter Me. There was this one point in this book where he tells Juliette that he would've been happier if she were dead, and he really meant it. At that point I had so much hatred for him. He treats Juliette like crap and wouldn't listen to reason at all. It's sad to see what's happened to him, because I really did like him in the first book.I won't say much more about this, but the plot is very intense and there's tension throughout, with sprinkles of humour and romance. You remember Chapter 62 from Unravel Me? Well, all I have to say is that Chapter 55 of Ignite Me knocks it right off the boat. There's also loads of action, obviously, and we get to see some wicked awesome shows of power. Very X-Men like.The ending, I think, was perfect. It's quite open, a little like the ending of Requiem by Lauren Oliver. But not as unfinished. It left me wanting more, but the major plot threads have been resolved. The climax felt a bit too abrupt to me, but I loved it regardless. It'll have you clutching the book in fear and anticipation. I'm very happy with the way this ended, and Shatter Me is now among my top concluded YA series. Tahereh Mafi has done such a great job with these very 3D characters and the premise. Her writing is beautiful as usual, and I hope we get more books from her soon, because she's one of my favourite authors ever. To those of you who're anticipating this one - I hope you'll adore it as much as I did! And to those who haven't read this series yet - have you been living under a rock? Get to it ASAP. I seriously want to re-read this already. Warner❤ Rating: 5/5

1 comment:

CAN I JUST AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID? I loved this book (and Warner :3) so much as well. Even though I couldn't read it in one sitting, it was read and gone a lot faster than normal. Love Tahereh so much. <3